author
Mabel Wood Martin
1888–1956
A Canadian-born novelist whose surviving work hints at a wide-ranging literary career, from magazine fiction to novels with far-flung settings. Best known today for The Green God's Pavilion, she wrote with an eye for atmosphere and adventure.
1 Audiobook
The Green God's Pavilion: A novel of the Philippines
by Mabel Wood Martin
About the author
Born in Toronto on January 25, 1888, Mabel Wood Martin was a Canadian-born author who later died in the United States on June 13, 1956. The basic published record for her life is fairly slim, but multiple sources agree on those dates and identify her as a novelist and short-story writer.
She is associated with novels including The Green God's Pavilion and The Lingering Faun, and a memorial record also credits her with Sentinel at the Western Gate and with publishing short stories in Scribner's and Collier's. The Green God's Pavilion, published in 1920, remains the easiest of her books to find today because it has been preserved in public-domain collections.
Reliable biographical detail beyond those points is scarce, which gives her career a slightly mysterious quality. What does come through clearly is a writer drawn to vivid settings and dramatic feeling, and readers who enjoy rediscovering overlooked early-20th-century fiction may find her especially appealing.